The newness of reading and counting in kindergarten brought my 5-year-old self a sense of excitement that only a classroom setting was able to bring forth. But over the years, my excitement slowly dissipated as math textbooks and never-ending novels piled up.
However, higher education allowed my excitement to flare up once again. I am now able to takes courses that interest me. The enthusiasm for learning that students had as children is given free range in college settings – something that can carry over into their professional careers. In fact, a Forbes study identified careers in the education sector as the most popular for college graduates in 2015.
UCLA gives students the opportunity to study education via a minor in the field. Education minor courses are meant to aid students’ understanding of current educational practices, interactions between the influential societal forces and educational policies and how citizens use educational resources like libraries.
But UCLA doesn’t offer undergraduate students any form of a bachelor’s degree in education. UC Irvine, on the other hand, has created a bachelor’s degree program in something called education sciences, which focuses on human development, societal contexts affecting education, systems for learning and educational research.
UCLA should take a cue from its Orange County counterpart and offer education students more than a simple minor. The UCLA Department of Education and Information Studies should develop an education major for undergraduate students.
There’s certainly interest. Over the past two years, UCLA’s Department of Education surveyed more than 600 students across campus to gauge interest in an education major, said Robert Cooper, UCLA faculty director of the education studies minor program. The data showed that over 50 percent of the students surveyed ranged from somewhat likely to very likely to major in education if they were to apply today with it as an option. And according to Cooper, the education studies minor is currently the second largest minor at UCLA.
Using this information, the department created an initial proposal for the education major coursework, which was later improved through the feedback given by a student advisory board. The proposal is expected to be presented to the education faculty this spring.
A degree in education can lead to a great number of careers – not just teaching. Education majors can go on to careers in research, advocacy, policymaking or even continue on to graduate school.
An education major would not only help students interested in the field, but its classes can positively impact students in multiple other fields of study, like political and communication fields, and help those students better understand the issues behind education.
Furthermore, an education major could help address various forms of social injustice in schools. Students from different economic backgrounds are given different educations and resources. Schools from low-income communities are given low funds and therefore fewer resources. This leads many low-income students to not attend college or to drop out.
This is where the major comes in.
“The study of education is very applicable today because of the new U.S. administration,” said Alejandro Cabrera, a fourth-year sociology student. “Public education systems are like a sanctuary for undocumented, low-income and first generation students. Education is something we need to learn about and the major would be groundbreaking, especially now.”
Students applying to college currently have to look elsewhere if they want to study education as undergraduates. They would even have to look past the University of California system because no other UC campus offers an education major. Even UC Irvine’s education sciences program focuses on evaluating research and education, not actual educational practices and interactions.
And as people like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and President Donald Trump threaten public school systems, including higher education, it makes sense to emphasize the importance of studying education. UCLA can spearhead the push and serve as a model for other UC schools looking to add an education major.
And while adding a major may seem difficult, in reality, it would only require the education department to expand the list of courses required for the education studies minor. What’s more, UCLA already offers a minor and graduate school with extraordinary courses and faculty, so adding a variety of classes should not pose too much of a problem.
The passion of education should not only continue on, but evolve to intellectual discussion found within educational systems, which will hopefully be found on campus soon enough.